1. Field
The present disclosure relates to apparatus and related methods for spray dispensation of a liquid, and, more particularly, to apparatus and related methods for dispensation by spray of a unit dose of liquid from a hermetically sealed container.
2. Background
It may be desirable to dispense a unit dose of liquid by spray from a hermetically sealed container in various medical applications. Liquid, as used herein, includes, for example, various materials in the liquid phase, solutions, suspensions, and emulsions that may be required to be hermetically sealed from the environment until just prior to dispensing with precision in a controllable and reproducible manner. The liquid may be, for example, an adhesive for the closure of surgical incisions, attachment of tissues, the closure of cuts or wounds, such as a polymerizing or cross-linking medical adhesive. In various aspects, the liquid may be, for example, a disinfectant, an analgesic, an antibiotic, or other such medically useful liquid, as would be readily recognized by those of ordinary skill in the art upon study of the present disclosure. In various aspects, the liquid may be a liquid having use in medical, automotive, aerospace, marine, or any other applications in which a unit dose of liquid may be applied and wherein the liquid is hermetically sealed until dispensed. A unit dose refers an amount of the liquid desired to be available for dispensing. This amount may be the total amount required for one application, in some aspects. In other aspects, the unit dose may be an amount of liquid sufficient for multiple applications usable in one or more dispensing sessions.
The liquid may be hermetically sealed within a container to prevent exposure to the environment until dispensed. Hermetic seal and hermetically sealed, as used herein, means a seal that is impervious to air, gas, atomic clusters, molecular clusters, or particulates. The hermetic seal may conform to specific technical standards, in various aspects, and these standards may reflect various degrees of imperviousness to air, gas, atomic clusters, molecular clusters, or particulates. The hermetic sealing of the liquid within the container may, for example, prevent contamination of the liquid by various contaminants such as dust or microbes within the environment, may prevent degradation of the liquid by exposure to oxygen or other gasses in the atmosphere, or may prevent the loss of liquid from the container, the degradation of an evacuated container by leakage of air, gas, atomic clusters, molecular clusters, or particulates. into the container. As a further example, the hermetic sealing of the liquid within the container may prevent the escape of gas from the container, the gas, such as an inert gas, being included with the liquid within the container. The hermetic seal may prevent intrusion of bacteria, dirt or any other contaminants, or premature chemical or other reactions prior to dispensing, in various aspects.
Various devices have been developed for the spray dispensation of liquid from a hermetically sealed container. For example, one such device includes a breakable glass ampoule that contains the hermetically sealed liquid within. The ampoule is placed within a cavity formed within a flexible casing, so that breaking the ampoule causes the liquid to fill the cavity. Subsequent squeezing of the casing dispenses the liquid through a nozzle in fluid communication with the casing. However, the ampoule breaks in a random non-repeatable fashion that may contribute a measure of randomness to the dispensation of a unit dose of liquid by spray from the device. The breaking of the ampoule causes glass fragments to be suspended in the liquid. These glass fragments may block small passages formed in or about the nozzle, which may cause unpredictable variations in the spray delivered by the nozzle. Furthermore, the spray may contain glass fragments, which may be undesirable or even dangerous in a medical application.
Other devices either pressurize the liquid directly or indirectly through deforming container that contains the liquid. Deformation of the container causes a seal to rupture, with the liquid being dispensed following rupture of the seal. Such devices may be characterized by the randomness of the seal-rupturing process. The controllability of such devices may be compromised by the non-reproducible liquid pressure spike and flow spike directly following the rupture of the seal, which may make it difficult to deliver a unit dose of liquid by spray from such devices.
Yet another device requires a manual opening of the nozzle exit to unseal the initially hermetically sealed container and requires an inherently random squeezing of the container to dispense the liquid from through the nozzle from the container. This opening process presents impediments to designing appropriate nozzle systems. The randomness with which the container is squeezed may inhibit precise or predictable dispensation of a unit dose from the device.
Accordingly, there is a need for improved apparatus as well as related methods for dispensation by spray of a unit dose of liquid from a hermetically sealed container.